On June 15, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) received the 1100-page draft Renewal Assessment Report (dRAR) and a CLH dossier of Glyphosate, which was compiled by 4 national authorities including France, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Sweden – known as the Assessment Group of Glyphosate (AGG).
Based on the outcome of the evaluation with the criteria for approval, AGG considers that glyphosate does meet the approval criteria set in Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 and authorization in at least one Member State is expected to be possible for at least one plant protection product containing the active substance for at least one of the representative uses.
After comparing the outcome of the evaluation with the criteria for classification as provided in Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 AGG proposes that glyphosate fulfills the criteria for classification for Eye Damage Category 1 (H318) “causes serious eye damage” and Aquatic Chronic 2 (H411) “toxic to aquatic life with long-lasting effects”. This is the same as the present harmonized classification for glyphosate and no new classification is proposed.
ECHA and EFSA will now organize parallel consultations on the draft report. These will be open to the public and launched in the first week of September this year.
The consultations are the first step in the assessments. ECHA’s Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC) will review the classification of glyphosate under the Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation. Classification of chemicals is based solely on the hazardous properties of a substance and does not take into account of the likelihood of exposure to the substance. Exposure is considered as part of the risk assessment process led by EFSA.
Glyphosate currently has a harmonized classification as causing serious eye damage and as toxic to aquatic life with long-lasting effects, before and following the assessment by ECHA in 2017. No classification for germ cell mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, or reproductive toxicity was warranted. The current proposal from the four Member States does not foresee a change to the existing classification.
Once ECHA has adopted its opinion on the classification of glyphosate, EFSA will finalize its peer review and publish its conclusions, expected in late 2022. Based on this risk assessment, the European Commission will decide whether to renew glyphosate.
